Ashley Olsen Spotted Sporting $39,000 Backpack By The Row

[Slargos]

  man that's cold

[citizen k]

hey marti. how do you feel about the fact that your monthly payment on your flat could feed that kid's entire vilage.   

Marty should let Somali refugees move in with him.

[Martinus]

God, you guys are such assholes. 

[Pat]

I could say something about you and your morals, except I know pretty much nothing about you, so who am I to judge?

If you were to do so you would merely be speculating what my morals might be while on the other hand you have explicitly expressed yours.

You were quite right to remain silent on the subject.

Have I explicitly expressed my morals? Then what of them is it that you find so repugnant? Please bear in mind we are talking about morals and not individual actions.

[Martinus]

hey marti. how do you feel about the fact that your monthly payment on your flat could feed that kid's entire vilage.   

Well, I may be a selfish asshole but I don't try to adopt a faux ideology to justify my iniquity.

Except when it comes to fucking guys. I built an entire moral system around it.

[Neil]

God, you guys are such assholes. 

If you can make a goofy appeal to retarded emotion, then I can make an appeal to dickery.

[crazy canuck]

I really see no point discussing anything with you any further.

Tell me Marti, what prevents you from giving up your high standard of living to help feed that child?

edit nvm

[Siege]

I spent over a thousand on a smoker/grill and it is fabulous. No swedes are invited to my cookout. Well, maybe Brain if he brings some animals to grill.

What if I promised to behave?

You are always welcome at my kosher cookout.

[Ed Anger]

I disagree. For a stronger person, a rejection of violence is not really reciprocal, any more than for a rich person an agreement to share wealth with a poorer one is reciprocal.

The reciprocity comes from what I would call a hypothetical solidarity - I will share my wealth with those in a worse situation than I am, on the account that had the situation been reversed, they would do the same for me. A social welfare system guarantees that, not human "good heart". Just as a strong law enforcement system guarantees the strong do not kill the weak - they do not do it out of pure morality either.

The strongest man in the world is just as susceptible to a knife in the liver or bullet in the brain as the weakest.

I understand the argument about the vagaries of fortune and chances of birth (I've studied Rawls too).  It breaks down a bit in the national setting, where most countries have already experienced examples of recipients of social insurance who are not as eager as prophesied to view it as a reciprocal system of insurance against misfortune but rather as one-way transfer.  And it's completely useless in the international context, where the currently starving Somalis who would stand to benefit from Ashley Olsen's $39,000 backpack being diverted to improving their lives can not be coerced into reciprocating once their lives have improved.

So it seems to me without the ability to coerce reciprocity, you lose the argument for the original coerced transfer.

Ok, Yi. If your argument against helping this child:

Seems like a bad investment. I don't own any cotton fields. Also seems like it couldn't pick any cotton if I did either.

[Admiral Yi]

Ok, Yi. If your argument against helping this child:



is that it is unlikely to repay you back, then I really see no point discussing anything with you any further.

I haven't made any arguments against helping that child.  The arguments in favor are abundant and self-evident.  I've asked the question why someone who *is* inclined to help that child is unable to do so unless others are too.

But you of course knew that before you posted.

[Razgovory]

Ok, Yi. If your argument against helping this child:



is that it is unlikely to repay you back, then I really see no point discussing anything with you any further.

FYP.

They are likely equivalent, as both are probably dead by now. 

[Eddie Teach]

Ok, Yi. If your argument against helping this child:

Is that a human-bat hybrid?

[Siege]

= =

[Martinus]

They are likely equivalent, as both are probably dead by now.

I know this is Languish, but saying a dead child is equal to a dead bug is still pretty low, even for you, Raz.

[Martinus]

= =

The smartest thing you have said (well, put in pictures) in ages. Crushing poverty and hunger breeds extremism.